Comedy legend Carol Burnett, 79, has a new book, Carrie and Me (Simon & Schuster), a memoir she unapologetically calls "a mother-daughter love story." Burnett's oldest daughter, Carrie, died of brain and lung cancer in 2002. She was 38. But before she died, she asked her mother to finish a screenplay she was working on. What Burnett ended up writing was the story of her special relationship with her high-spirited daughter. She chats with USA TODAY's Craig Wilson.

A: It was therapeutic. I felt Carrie on my right shoulder as I was writing. It's about our relationship, how much we were joined at the hip. I was hoping to bring Carrie's essence to the page. I felt good about. it.

Q: As you say, your children aren't supposed to die before you. How did you cope?

'Carrie and Me' by Carol Burnett

A: It's minute by minute when it hits you. We (the family) knew it. We were expecting it. But when the ugly reality of it hits you, you don't want to get out of bed. The fact I was writing a play myself and having a trial run in Chicago at the time, that helped. You think you've got to finish it for Carrie's sake. That was my coping mechanism. That saved my life.

Q: It wasn't always a love story. She wasn't the easiest daughter to raise, with her well-publicized drug addiction as a teenager. Any advice to parents dealing with a child with such problems? I like your line, "You have to love your kids enough to let them hate you."

A: Yes, that's my advice. I was so scared of upsetting her. If I did this or that, would she think less of me. We weren't that well versed in addiction, but yes, you do have to love them enough to let them hate you. But it's the disease that's hating you, not them.

Q: Describe Carrie in just a few words.

A: Well, oh, man. She was such a free spirit. She experienced joy on a daily basis. She loved people and wanted to get to know them. She dressed with boas. Her wedding was outrageous.

"Visiting Carrie at her cabin in Colorado with Great Dane Pee Wee in the background, 2000."(Photo: Carol Burnett)

Q: And Carrie's unfinished screenplay, Sunrise in Memphis, which you included in the book, how would you describe that? It's very Carrie, no?

A: Yes, I think she was, in a sense, using part of her own makeup in the character of Kate. Bohemian. Out there.

Q: What did you learn about Carrie that you didn't know before you started writing this book? The letters from her friends were fun.

A: Nothing really surprised me. It was all a reaffirmation of who she was.

Q: What do you hope people come away with after reading this book?

A: I hope they come away with hope. That going through all this stuff that we did, with the addictions and all of that, and then after I lost her to cancer, I regained my hope. That I came through it. I was able to cope and hope again.

Q: What do you think Carrie would think of what you've done here?

A: I think she'd be happy with it. I felt a sense of relief when I finished it. I'd like to think it was coming not from me but from Carrie, too. It's much better than just writing about the screenplay.

Q:Are you pulling on your ear lobe right about now to signal this conversation is over?

A: Yep! Left ear lobe. It was measured years ago by a reporter from Life and it's a half a millimeter longer, just by my pulling on it all those years.